As Not Seen Before
Media and Ordinary Spaces as Alternative Archives in Nana Oforiatta Ayim’s Novel The God Child
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6091967 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dirk Van Rens (0000-0002-6598-2549, University of Eastern Finland Joensuu Finland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 51-73 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-13 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Matatu (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0932-9714 • E-ISSN: 1875-7421 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/18757421-05601002 |
| OpenAlex | W4408393656 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
This paper examines memory in Nana Oforiatta Ayim’s novel The God Child (2019) by centring on media and ordinary spaces. Media and ordinary spaces provide alternative archives able to circumvent traditional memory-making media. The novel’s central concern is shown to be the way these media continue to produce a Eurocentric image of Africa as pre-modern. Apart from signalling the potential of new media to serve as an alternative means of memory-making, the novel’s persistent use of intertextual references to media irrespective of its geographical setting (Germany, England, Ghana) also emphasises globalisation. The depiction of Ghana as highly globalised counters problematic cultural memories of Africa created by institutionalised media such as the museum. Ordinary spaces function as another alternative archive for Afropean memory-making proffered by the novel. Similar to the functioning of new media, the depiction of ordinary spaces such as domestic spaces and cars emphasises Ghana’s highly globalised position and moreover facilitates the occasional provincialisation of London. While the characters’ intra-textual efforts to construct memories that may compete with institutionalised memories fail, the novel itself functions as a fragment of cultural memory in its own right within the extra-textual context of the reader
German Colonialism and Identity Studies · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Geology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |